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US Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken has described the attacks on civilians in Gaza as gut-wrenching, saying "the suffering among innocent men, women and children breaks my heart".
This comes as close as 25 000 Palestinians and around 1 200 Israelis are said to have been killed and hundreds injured in the war between Israel and Hamas since October 2023. More than two million Palestinians in Gaza have been living under Israel’s occupation for decades, while hundreds of Israelis have been displaced since October last year.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Blinken, who’s toured the Middle East region a few times since the start of the war, said his government has impressed upon Israel its responsibility to minimise civilian casualties and get in more humanitarian assistance through to Gazans.
Israel’s war in Gaza comes after Hamas attacked the Jewish state, killing and kidnapping over 200 men, women and babies. Hamas attacked revellers at a concert and went house to house to attack unsuspecting people in their homes on 7 October 2023.
"It's why we're at it relentlessly, every single day. Just on a purely human level, it's devastating, but it reinforces the conviction that there has to be another way that answers Israel's most profound concerns and questions.
"Israelis have to live with security. They can't have a repeat of October 7th. No country would accept a repeat of October 7th. And I think not by way of justification, but just by way of explanation. It's hard to overstate the psychological impact on the country as a whole of what happened on that day."
His comments come as the narrative has turned against the US and Israel following what’s been described as disproportionate attacks on Palestinians and their properties in Gaza and genocide of the Palestinians living in the strip.
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Israel, with the backing of the world’s leading economy and other allies, has maintained it has a right to defend itself.
The war between Israel and Hamas has raised tensions in the Middle East and concerns of an escalation of the war with Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah following an exchange of fire between the two. Yemen’s Houthi rebels have also attacked merchant ships from US and UK-based companies on the Red Sea route since November last year, disrupting trade as an answer to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Last week, the US and UK responded by launching airstrikes on a number of Hezbollah's targets.
These tensions in the Middle East, as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine, have added to worries of further fragmentation and trade volatility, as some countries put in place protectionism measures in violation of WTO trade rules.
A WEF report released at the start of the WEF annual meeting on Monday found that global growth would likely suffer in 2024 as a result of these geopolitical issues, with Europe already on the backfoot expected to bear the brunt of the worst economic growth levels.
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Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Adel Al-Jubeir stated that the security of navigation in the Red Sea was a concern for all countries. He said the priority was de-escalation of hostilities in the Red Sea and the entire region.
"We need to focus on the war in Gaza because of its impact first on the region as a whole and for the risks it poses for further escalation. We’ve now seen close to 30 000 civilians being killed in Gaza. They are killed every day, and we continue to see restrictions to humanitarian aid and frankly, we don’t see any sign that Israel is achieving its strategic objectives.
South Africa is one of the countries that have accused Israel of genocide. Last week, South Africa's top legal minds presented their case to the International Court of Justice, seeking for Israel’s attack to cease immediately.
